It's not easy to say, but it's time for Bobby Bowden to say it's time

Bobby Bowden's Seminoles are 0-2 in the ACC for the first time ever. (The Associated Press)Honk if you’ve called for Bobby Bowden to go ahead and chisel the date of death on his coaching tombstone.

The number of people in that growing chorus has begun to outnumber the attendance at a Bowden family reunion.

Otherwise contrary columnists, belligerent beat writers and media types who would never want to join a club that would have someone like them as a member have linked arms to croon that classic stadium anthem.

Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, good-bye.

A little louder, people, just in case Bowden didn’t hear you the first 384 times.

I hear you. And, as painful as it is to admit, given my personal feelings for the family, I can’t say I disagree.

When’s the last time so many people marched in an army that came both to praise and bury a leader at once? The calls to arms have been resoundingly sympathetic and remarkably similar. They sound something like this:

Dear Bobby,

You know we love you. You know we respect you. You know we appreciate everything you’ve done, but dadgumit, you’re not getting it done anymore and you haven’t gotten it done for some time and, really, it’s time.

You know it, and we know it and you know we know it. Actually, we’re not sure you know it, or maybe you’re just not willing or able to admit it, so allow us to spell it out.

You’ve lost it.

You’re one of the best coaches in college football history, and here you are, presiding over (sort of) one of your worst teams during the most extended slide of your career.

You’re 2-3 for the first time since 1983. You’re 0-2 for the first time ever in the ACC. You almost lost to Jacksonville State, for heaven’s sake.

Worst of all, this isn’t a sudden U-turn for the worse. It’s a large truck rolling down a long hill pumping brakes that have lost their bite.

You’re 10 years removed from your last national championship and four years removed from your last conference title and there’s little evidence or confidence that you can lead your people out of either desert in this lifetime.

So, if you don’t mind, and don’t take this the wrong way because you know we love you, but after you lose to Florida, again, won’t you please turn out the lights and turn in your keys?

OK, Buddy?

What used to be a debate has become a lynch mob carrying a velvet rope. What used to be a question for fans and media types alike has become an official statement, or at least a statement from a high-ranking official.

When Smith told the Democrat that the FSU legal counsel has been working on finalizing a head coaching contract for head coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher, it signaled that important people who love the university are tired of waiting for Bowden to walk away gracefully.

It’s understandable why Bowden is reluctant to leave his life’s work. It’s his life’s work, but there’s a vivid reason to retire standing right in front of him every day he goes to work.

It’s his own statue outside the football building.

It’s big, but it’s not bigger than the stadium.

The stadium’s big, but it’s not bigger than the university.

This is the perfect opportunity for Bowden to be the bigger man, to tell the world that this season will be his last and then coach like it.

He doesn’t have to win another game to save his legacy. It’s more important now to save his program by passing it on.